SpeakOut_Apr2015_FINAL_web

@wespeechies #rocur

Speech Pathology Australia takes the @weSpeechies reins

Do you use Twitter? That’s what everyone asked as Speech Pathology Australia ( @SpeechPathAus ) prepared to curate the @WeSpeechies #RoCur (‘rotatation curation’). If you are a stranger to social media and neither ‘tweet’ nor read Webwords in JCPSLP , then you may be unfamiliar with the @WeSpeechies Twitter handle (or Twitter account). The @WeSpeechies handle was founded in March 2014 by Speech Pathology Australia members Caroline Bowen ( @speech_woman ) and Bronwyn Hemsley ( @BronwynHemsley ). It provides an international curated meeting point in Twitter for Speech- Language Pathologists (SLPs), Speech & Language Therapists (SLTs), and SLP/SLT students. Its purpose is to facilitate mutual support, the sharing of peer reviewed articles and relevant links to websites and blog posts, and opportunities for engagement with colleagues and other interested tweeters. The highlight of the week is often its one-hour Tuesday ‘chat’, related to the week’s theme, and planned and led by the curator of that week. A description of the curator’s topic is posted online, in advance, along with the four questions that are posed to chat followers. Each week an invited person or organisation assumes responsibility for curating @WeSpeechies. In this way, the handle can facilitate discussion of diverse research topics, ideas, views and experiences, and other subject

matter. In February 2015, Speech Pathology Australia was the first professional organisation invited to curate the handle. From 22−28

and questions. And with Twitter, you don’t have to tweet in order to participate in the chat. You can simply ‘Favourite’ someone’s Tweet, or ‘Retweet’ it (forward it) to your followers. In this way, the conversation grows exponentially beyond those actively tweeting. Although there are a growing number of Australian speech pathologists joining and using Twitter, the potential for Twitter to be an empowering tool for intra and inter-professional discourse and change is largely untapped by most students, new graduates, or experienced academics, clinicians, educators, managers, researchers or retirees. It is easy to open a Twitter account, which allows you to generate and disseminate news by tweeting links to abstracts, articles, and information relevant to the profession. You can use your Twitter account to draw attention to professional events or other matters that may interest your work or professional colleagues. And it doesn’t have to be all about work. You can show the world a photograph of a new niece or nephew if that’s what you want to do! Michael Kerrisk Communications and Marketing Manager Many thanks to Dr Caroline Bowen and A/Prof Bronwyn Hemsley for their support and assistance during SPA’s week at the helm of the @WeSpeechies handle!

February 2015, SPA (or more accurately, its Chief Executive Officer @GailMspa and Communications and Marketing Manager @anactbloke ) took the @WeSpeechies handle for a ‘spin’. Under SPA’s auspices, the @WeSpeechies chat topic was ‘Strategic planning: objectives, deliverables and future directions’ . SPA experienced their @WeSpeechies chat as being a bit like attending a town hall meeting where everyone wants to ask their question or have their say, all at the same time. Unlike a town hall meeting where the organisers sit at a desk at the front of the hall, the organisers of the chat sit in front of their computers (or mobile phones or tablets) attempting to respond to the various questions and comments as they come up. As newcomers to chat moderation, we found that responding to everyone is not possible. But, that said, often someone else in the chat would respond to a comment or question. And so it goes on for an hour. Everyone is exposed to everyone else’s thoughts and inputs – for all to see on the hashtag, #WeSpeechies. It is possible to respond to people later, and topics often extend from the chat further into the week. A @WeSpeechies chat is carefully focused. SPA’s four questions were designed to stimulate debate, comments

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Speak Out April 2015

Speech Pathology Australia